BY NATHANIEL MILLS 

It has now been almost a year since then-President Jeff Ettinger of the University of Minnesota intervened to revoke the properly vetted job offer to Raz Segal to serve as faculty director of UMN’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. This decision was denounced by the UMN chapter and national leadership of the AAUP, over a thousand academics, dozens of the most prominent academic leaders in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies, and in resolutions of no-confidence in President Ettinger and Provost Rachel Croson passed by both the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) assembly and the university-wide faculty senate. The administration ignored all these condemnations and has refused to correct or change course on this matter, but the impact of the Segal affair continues to play out in shared governance struggles at UMN.

Schaeffer Hall, University of Minnesota

Our administration has embarked on a new tactic of circumventing shared governance: appointing a hand-picked Administrative Hiring Task Force and charging it with interpreting faculty director hiring policies—specifically because of the Segal incident. This is in spite of the fact that hiring for CLA research center directors is clearly laid out in the college’s constitution and was followed in the process of vetting Segal. Furthermore, proposing a committee “review” of policies is obviously an inadequate response to the findings of the senate and the no-confidence votes, in which the illegitimacy of and harm done by the obstruction of Segal’s hire was clearly determined and affirmed. This task force’s charge makes no mention of academic freedom and is led by a provost with two resolutions of no confidence against her for precisely, in the case of Segal, contravening principles of academic freedom.

The leadership of UMN’s AAUP chapter sent a public letter to task force members on January 13, outlining three main objections: that the task force being led by a provost who was twice censured by the faculty over the actions that catalyzed the task force is a blatant conflict of interest; that the task force neglects the fundamental issue (academic freedom) at play in the Segal case; and that the task force is an attempt to impose the will of the administration in spite of shared governance procedures. The letter noted that “the formation of the Task Force is not only deeply disrespectful to faculty but also an open affront to core principles and processes of shared governance at our university.” On January 28, the elected representatives of the CLA assembly underscored the AAUP chapter’s criticism and voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution calling for the dissolution of this task force. The chapter took the unprecedented step of formally requesting that all faculty members resign from the task force, and two members have since stepped down (one explains his reasoning for doing so here).

Efforts to defend the task force have been incoherent. For instance, its chair Bill McGeveran has denied that shared governance is the proper arena for its work, claiming it is “meant to be an opportunity to interpret the existing policy. . . . Shared governance is where you assess policies and change them. That’s not what we’re doing.” This is an inaccurate characterization of the UMN senate system, which is also an advisory apparatus (administrators remind us of this often), and nothing in its constitutional prerogatives precludes interpreting policy. The senate’s Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee is already charged with responsibility for “for all matters of policy related to academic freedom.” In addition, the senate’s Committee on Faculty Affairs is already charged with “[examining] all policies and procedures of the University which influence the professional and personal welfare of the faculty . . . and to recommend improvements in the design and implementation of faculty personnel policies.” These fora are where any review of (already very clear) hiring policies should be conducted. In addition, meetings of senate committees and parliamentary sessions are open to both the entire university community and the general public. This ensures accountability, that affected parties can follow deliberations, and that journalists can document developments at the university. Avoiding the public scrutiny attendant on senate meetings—a crucial component of academic democracy—is another suspected motive for this task force’s creation.

The faculty senate has spoken and the message has been clear: We oppose blocking Segal’s hire. So, the task force seems like an attempt by our administration to secure the “interpretation” of hiring policy it wants—one that licenses senior administrators to overturn faculty-vetted hires—with the appearance of faculty consultation. For the administration of UMN—or any university—to use ad-hoc committees to circumvent the constitutional representatives of the faculty is to signal disdain for shared governance and faculty expertise.

The administration’s refusal to resist outside political pressure in Segal’s case has already created a very public precedent for political interference at UMN. If the Administrative Hiring Task Force comes up with an interpretation of standing policy that gives any credibility to the administration’s ability to overturn faculty hires for research centers, this will only further encourage political actors to try to dictate the state of higher education at UMN: Right-wing critics will be thrilled.

Whether at Minnesota or any other US college or university, attacks on higher education aren’t parried by task forces staffed by the administration. Rather, we resist such attacks and maintain the integrity of our work by committing to the values and practices at the core of any institution of higher education: academic freedom and faculty control over the staffing of the faculty.

Nathaniel Mills is associate professor of English at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, member at large of the executive committee of the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities AAUP chapter, and a University of Minnesota faculty senator from the College of Liberal Arts.